Cougs Sweep Sun Devils

For the first time since Bill Clinton was president, Washington State (7-13, 3-6) recorded a season sweep over Arizona State (11-10, 3-6) with a decisive 54-43 Pac-12 road victory in Tempe. That’s right Cougar Nation. Coach June Daugherty has a very young and talented WSU team playing good basketball.

The Cougs used stifling defense to get the job done, holding the Sun Devils to shooting an anemic 25.9% for the game. And it was intense play on the defensive end of the court in the second half which put this game solidly in the win column for Washington State. ASU was a ridiculous 6-32 or 18.8% from the field over the final 20-minutes.

It was ASU who got off to a decent start in this one, leading 7-6 in the first couple of minutes. Then the Cougars found their stride and rattled off 10 unanswered points to control the lead and the game the rest of the evening in Wells Fargo Arena.

Freshman phenom Lia Galdeira turned in another veteran-like performance filling up the stat sheet with game-high 20 points, 8 rebounds, 7 steals and an assist. Those are some gaudy numbers.

The Cougs got another good game from freshman Dawnyelle Awa. Dawny dished out 4 assists which scoring 6 points and hustling for 2 steals in 28-minutes of play.

"“We played with great energy, good confidence and executed well on both ends of the floor. We moved the ball well against ASU’s zone and Lia (Galdeira) got some open looks and knocked down some shots. Our whole team has stepped up after losing Tia (Presley) last week and we got a little bit from everybody tonight to come away with a big road win against a tough Sun Devil team.”— WSU Coach June Daugherty"

Washington State shot a respectable 41.1% from the floor and dominated the boards with a 46-35 rebound advantage.

The Cougars will look for their next conference win Sunday afternoon in Tucson when they challenge the Arizona Wildcats at 1pm.

GO COUGS!!!
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Washington State Notes
– WSU posted a season sweep of ASU for the first time since the 1996-97 season
– WSU held ASU to its lowest point total in series history…
– The Sun Devils total of 43 points are the fewest points allowed by WSU since beating Utah 60-43 in Pullman last season
– Freshman Mariah Cooks made first career start
– Senior Katie Grad made first start of the season
– Lia Galdeira tallied her third 20+ point game of the season.